Quick update

Just added in race photos into my race report post.  They're not -too- hideous :o)

Achey knee and a bit delicate

Feeling a tiny bit delicate after Mr TOTKat's birthday celebrations last night.  A couple more beers than I'm used to so rubbish quality sleep and quite tired today.  Gentle day today, day off work and I should be right as rain tomorrow.

Yesterday.  The race!

5am start was a bit harder than last time.  No idea why but it just felt ickier.  Thus followed a catalogue of small errors that could have made lots of dents in my race performance...

First off, last time I had fruity malt loaf with peanut butter for breakfast which worked really well; this time I had yogurt with fruit compote, muesli and chopped banana.  I had real trouble eating it and it didn't feel nice in my stomach at all.  Error number two was, er, number twos related.  I suddenly needed to go with less than 10 minutes to go before the start of the race and we were in the first wave of swimmers so I didn't have long.  Queue of 7 people for 2 loos!  Argh!  Got all flustered trying to get my tri-suit back on again so it took ages (the zip is up the back and goes through the "ladies support" section elastication so it's really hard to do up) and I ended up trotting back to where Mr TOTKat was waiting for the start of the race with only about 30s to spare before ditching our warm clothes for the swim.

The swim felt vile again; I think I just don't fare well swimming from cold and first thing in the morning.  I got overtaken once which was really downheartening especially given that I had to wait at the side of the pool for a good 20s for the overtaker to actually do the overtake and then she didn't whizz off ahead of me, so I just ended up with a bit of a draft for the last 4 lengths.

A little trot to transition and my bike where Mr TOTKat was almost ready to go off (he was race #16 and I was #17 so we were very close together) and I made errors number #3 and #4; I put my running/cycling top with my race numbers pinned to it on backwards so had to tear it off again, lost two pins from the front number by doing that, and jam it back on the right way around after finding one of the pins that had pinged off and pinning both back in place.  I lost a good minute or so there.  *sigh*  Then I put on my helmet and did it up, decided not to bother with socks, jammed my trainers on and grabbed my cycling gloves to put on whilst running out to the cycle start.  Mistake #5 there.  Of course you can't put gloves on whilst wheeling a bike and trying to run a bit!  So I ended up with them wedged under my palms against the handlebars which meant that gear changes and braking were impeded and tricky.

I then spent the next few minutes of the cycling deciding to try to stuff them down my top (mistake #6).  Hah.  My tri-suit goes quite high and I'm not stable enough on the bike to take hands off the bars (so yes, I can't signal at the moment).  So the next few minutes were spent mostly thinking about what to do with my damned gloves rather than concentrating on cycling quickly.  I eventually decided to lose them.  Left hand, easy, just lift it up a bit and let the glove drop.  Right hand... well, less easy as I didn't want the glove to drop into my chain or wheel and foul it up so I had to get my hand down to the middle of the handlebars whilst not losing the glove, get the other hand close on the bars, pass the glove to my left hand, move my right one back to where it should be, similarly the left and then drop the glove somewhere safe.  Faff!  Wasted thinking and effort and speed!  Still, once they were gone I could actually concentrate on cycling.

The rest of the cycle was pretty sore-butt-making as the roads aren't in great condition and this new bike is a lot stiffer and less forgiving.  And the last 6km it got quite windy, which dropped my average speed from 28km/h down to 23km/h.  So, overall a very disappointing cycle.  But the run...

...started as usual with legs made of puffed lead, or so it feels.  It took a few minutes for them to loosen up and feel normal(ish).  As I rounded a corner where you can see the start of the run join up with the circuits, I saw Mr TOTKat heading for the half-way mark of the run.  Disheartening as all hell as it meant he was 15 minutes ahead of me and I was expecting to be only 10 minutes behind.  Still, the kids helping out the marshalls were really encouraging and spurred me on a bit and I even managed a sprint finish right at the end :o)  Watch time 01:34:21 so with up to 7 minutes to cut off that time for the non-racing portion I was well in for hitting or even beating my target time of 01:30 for the race.

Official results: 01:28:32 beating my last race time by exactly 6 minutes and 30 seconds!  I did improve on the swim+transition by 1 minute and 13 seconds, despite the faffery with the backwards top and re-pinning my number.  I improved on the bike time by less than I'd hoped (2 minutes 26 seconds) but the really pleasing part was the run+transition improvement of 2 minutes 51 seconds!  Very very pleased with that improvement indeed; a whole 9% :oD  Overall 7% improvement in the race time and exactly 1000kcals burned.

Good race

...more later, but looking at a race time in the 01:29s I hope, given a watch time of 01:34 including up to 7 minutes non-racing.  *anticipating official results*

Cor!

Good gymmage today!  I upped my clean and press to 17.5kg and cleared all 3x 10 reps. :o) I was feeling so good after the routine I thought I'd try an assisted pull-up and managed one with only 10kg assist which is far and away the best performance ever.  I reckon had I tried it at the start, I would probably have managed one with no assist, through sheer bloody-mindedness.

The routine is now:-

• 1km warm up on the rower at L7
• squat and swing - 12kg dumbbell - 3x10 SUPERSET A
• pendulum swings - bodyweight - 3x10x2 SUPERSET A
• lunge with cable rows - 12.5kg - 3x10 SUPERSET B
• side plank with rows - 4kg dumbbell - 3x10x2 SUPERSET B
• lunge with crossed-arm raise/swing to knee - 4kg dumbbell - 3x10x2
• clean and press - 17.5kg bar bell - 3x10
• planks - 3x60s (60s recovery)
• 3x 30s sprints (>200rpm on L6 on the cross trainer) with 60s recovery
• 5 minutes cool-down and stretch

So, yay!  Good gym!  Feeling good and strong and almost ready for Monday's race (start postion #17!  *wibble*)

I also tried the Nakd Pecan Pie bar today and that was pretty much as nice as the Cashew Cookie, so both are very much recommended and fill a little afternoon snack place in the overall scheduling quite nicely.  So thanks loads to Laura for those!

Kangaroo steak for dinner..

Very mild flavour, probably because it is sooooo lean.  Juicy, cooked rare like this.  Very nice.  Will eat again :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and Grape Nuts
S - banana
L - salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, celery, sweet peppers, pomegranate seeds, cucumber, chicken breast
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
S - MP beef jerky
S - carrot and Waitrose houmous
D - kangaroo steak, roasted sweet peppers, couscous, peas and sweetcorn

Exercise 53 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1689 2203]
Protein (g)	173.9 (42.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	162.3 (36.9%)
Fat (g)	38.4 (21.0%)
Fruit & Veg	10.9

Envigorated - and an incredible milestone

Today marks 4 years since I took the decision to lose weight and turn my health around.  4 years on and I'm still maintaining a 30kg weight loss (which took 6 months to effect purely through diet change and calorie deficit), having had a little hiccup part way through when my scales stopped working properly and I put on a good half stone.  That was worked off again and I've been working on lowering my body fat %, taken up running and got back into swimming.  I've done my first 10km running race (2 minutes faster than I wanted to do it), my first sprint triathlon (10 minutes faster than I wanted to do it; and 2 more tris to come through the year), done a 5km swim for charity (in less than 2 hours despite no training) and signed up for a 2 mile swim down the Thames later in the summer.  I've come a long way and am still moving forward.  I may well be very hard on myself most of the time, but I have done well and continue to do so.  So it calls for a little celebration.  Dinner out tonight!

Despite still aching quite a bit, I went to the gym with Mr TOTKat this morning.  And I really went for it.  Full body weights session with a good 15 minutes cardio at the end.  I feel great!   Mr TOTKat's trainer even commented on my walking lunges with kettlebells, which was pleasing!  My thighs ought to calm down a bit by the morning too. :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, maca root and some Dorset Cereals fruity muesli
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk with water (we ran out of milk!)
L - sandwich; Sainsburys wholemeal crusty roll with ham, Philadelphia and lettuce
S - cottage cheese with pineapple and maca root
D - hot smoked salmon with beetroot and watercress, duck breast with pureed cauliflower and spinach and a portobello mushroom, chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce, champagne, dessert wine and coffee with Amaretto

Exercise - 65 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2570 2303]
Protein (g)	159.2 (25.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	234.4 (35.8%)
Fat (g)	67.5 (24.7%)
Alcohol (g)	47.6 (13.6%)
Fruit & Veg	6.6

Tri photos

So there is photographic evidence of my triathlon attempt:-

Looking a touch porky there, but that's after 2 months away from the gym and an extra kg fat going on. So, not too hard to fix, should take about a month back in the gym again. But still, not the prettiest sight.

It was my first proper gym session today, since before we went skiing and it was a touch hard. I had to drop the reps on some things and I missed out the jacknife on the Swiss Ball completely:-

• Warm up on the rower; 1km at L7 (took 04:30!)
• Dual arm lateral pulls; 2x 12.5kg, 3x10
• Walking lunges; 16kg kettlebell, 3x18
• Squat and clean to shoulder press; 9kg dumbbell, 3x16
• Reverse flye; 1kg on Kinesis, 3x10
• Dips; 3x12 (superset with below)
• Planks; 3x60s (superset with above)
• Reverse crunch; 3x12
• Bicep curls; 2x7kg, 3x8
• Cool down on the cross-trainer; 10 minutes at L7

Which clocked in at 52 minutes of exercise and 474kcals burned (including background).  Of course, my glutes started to make themselves known about 10 minutes after I'd finished so I'm going to really feel it in the morning!

Mm, tuna fishcakes with roasted veggies and a spoon of chilli sauce for dinner:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S - banana
S - Dorset Cereals bar; 3 berries and cherries
L - salad; Tesco Alfresco salad (lettuce, carrot and pepper), prawns and cherry tomatoes
*gym*
S - 1 scoop in skimmed milk
S - 2x mini Babybel
S - beef jerky
 D - tuna fishcakes with roasted veg (parsnips, sweet pepper, courgette) followed by Tims Dairy yogurt (toffee)

Exercise - 52 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1717 2205]
Protein (g)	182.3 (43.6%)
Carbohydrate (g)	178.3 (40%)
Fat (g)	30.4 (16.4%)
Fruit & Veg	14.2

Norty!

Oh I -was- naughty today.

I got home from work, got changed and went for a run!  Physio said last time I saw her that I wasn't to run (I honestly think she thinks my butt hurts a lot more than it does, despite me insisting that I'm only "aware" of it and that there is no actual pain any more at all).  I was supposed to see her last Thursday, but we had to postpone to this Thursday.  I can't wait another week to start running (or not) in advance of the second Thames Turbo sprint triathlon on bank holiday Monday so I absolutely had to run today.

And it was fine.  4.073km in 00:22:15; that's 10.91 kilometres per hour!  Fastest I've ever run!  And everything feels fine; well, OK, my legs are a bit achey still from Sunday but that's another matter.

And I'm back on track with the macro-nutrients today as well :o)

I had a very pretty breakfast of the usual greek yogurt with bits in this morning:-

And a slightly indulgent dinner of beef chilli with couscous and veg with grated cheese on top:-

Little bit under for today, and low on (good) fat, so might have to find another snack later... maybe involving peanut butter.

...OK, so it ended up being a mini Babybel and some pistachios :o)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S -"lunchies" - apricot and yogurt bar
L - salad; lettuce, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, spring onions, capers and chicken breast
S - carrot and houmous
S -beef jerky
*run*
S - 1 scoop in semi-skimmed milk
D - beef chilli with couscous, peas and sweetcorn with grated organic cheddar
S - Mini Babybel and pistachios

Exercise - 22 minutes run (HRmax 188, HRavg 182)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2012 2023]
Protein (g)	184.8 (37.5%)
Carbohydrate (g)	164.0 (31.2%)
Fat (g)	68.7 (31.3%)
Fruit & Veg	10.6

Slightly torpedoed

I have a stinking cold (my first for nearly three years now!).  My ribs ache and I got naff all sleep.  I am filling tissues at a rate of knots.  Obviously my 1600m training swim planned for today is right off the cards; I can barely breathe whilst sat still, never mind face down in water whilst exerting myself.

Sod.

The physio also found a really sore bit higher up my back this morning that she was surprised she hadn't found previously.  So she worked on that a bit and said still to lay off the running.  *sigh*  Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon #2 is in just over 3 weeks time now.  I need to do something soon otherwise that will be off the cards too!


B - muesli with banana and semi-skimmed milk
S - 2x mini Babybel Light
L - chicken breast and lettuce in a wholemeal pitta with baked beans
S - Dorset Cereals bar - 3 berries and cherries
D - breaded prawns, followed by mash-topped fish pie and broccoli

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1818 1797]
Protein (g)	121.5 (27.7%)
Carbohydrate (g)	191.5 (40.9%)
Fat (g)	61.5 (31.5%)
Fruit & Veg	5.8

Oosp!

We appear to have signed up to the whole Thames Turbo Triathlon series for 2010. 4, sprint triathlons (426m swim, 21km bike ride, 5km run) on bank holiday mondays throughout the year, starting on Easter Monday at 7am. It'll be the bike ride that kills my time.